The Kids Are Alright: The Who’s “My Generation” Reissued on CD

“Belgravia, a rich neighbourhood where women in fur coats shoved me out of line as if I didn’t exist, only made more starkly apparent the generational divide I was trying to describe…The feeling that began to settle in me was not so much resentment towards those Establishment types all around my flat in Belgravia as fear that their disease might be contagious,” Pete Townshend writes in his new memoir, Who I Am, about the song “My Generation.” He continues, “What was that disease? It was actually more a matter of class than of age. Most of the young people around me in this affluent area of London were working on transforming themselves into the ruling class, the Establishment of the future. I felt that the trapping sof their aged customs and assumptions were like a death, whereas I felt alive, not solely because I was young, but really alive, unencumbered by tradition, property and responsibility.”

When Townshend’s band The Who released that sneering, stuttering salvo with its shocking credo “Hope I die before I get old,” its rebellious message was not heard just by the group’s audience of so-called mods, but by angry, disaffected youth everywhere. The No. 2 U.K. single soon provided the title to very first album by Messrs. Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and Moon. My Generation (issued in the U.S. by Decca Records in slightly altered form as The Who Sing My Generation) was released in December 1965, and blended Townshend originals with R&B covers from James Brown and Bo Diddley. It remains a striking document of The Who’s primal power, and has been routinely recognized as one of the greatest albums of all time by sources on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Mojo, Rolling Stone, Q and NME. The original British mono version, however, has been out of print for over three decades in both Britain and America, but that’s soon to change with Universal U.K.’s My Generation mono CD, due in November.

What’s different about My Generation in mono? Hit the jump for more details, plus the track listing and pre-order links!

When My Generation was given the Deluxe Edition treatment from MCA/Chronicles in 2002, it marked the album’s reappearance on the British market for the first time since 1980. Its tracks were mixed into stereo for the very first time, but many of the vocal and instrumental overdubs unique to the mono album versions went unheard. Only two mono tracks were included on the Deluxe Edition, “A Legal Matter” and “My Generation.” Other tracks (including “The Good’s Gone,” “Much Too Much,” “La-La-La-Lies” and the album’s other stone-cold classic, “The Kids are Alright”) had rather different mono versions, too. In 2008, this was remedied when the Japanese arm of Universal remastered the original U.K. mono mix. (It should be noted that the mono album mix of the American version of the album has long been available on CD from MCA, as the tracks weren’t mixed into stereo until 2002.) The Japanese reissue was available in single CD, SACD and box set formats (with bonus tracks and in the case of the box set, nifty replica paper sleeves). But the upcoming U.K. CD appears to be a straight reissue of the original 12-track Brunswick LP.

Even if it doesn’t include any bonus material, the mono My Generation looks to be a bargain (the best you ever had?). At the time of this writing, the disc is selling at Amazon U.K. for a mere £5.00 while the U.S. price is just $13.91. It’s scheduled to arrive in the U.K. on November 19 and in the U.S. on November 27. You can order at the links below!

Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, Perry Como, Peggy Lipton, Vikki Carr and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders.
In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and his work still appears with frequency in the magazine. In 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.
Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green.
In 2015, Joe teamed with Real Gone Music to form the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records kicks off in March 2015 with newly-curated collections co-produced by Joe from iconic vocalist Johnny Mathis and legendary producer Bob Crewe.
Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

Comments

JUST re-bought a copy of The Who Sings My Generation (MCA CD release) for the mono versions. Had a copy when I was younger but it was stolen along with some of my other favorite discs. Later bought the Deluxe Version of My Generation with the stereo mixes and extra tracks, was listening to it lately and missed the mono versions so I went on the hunt for the MCA disc again. Not sure I’ll be rushing to pick this particular one up though, still have to get the Beach Boys remasters among the various Beatles releases that keep surfacing but I’m sure down the road it’ll eventually find its way in the collection.

Super Deluxe Edition showed a picture of the tape box used for this remaster and it clearly has a date of 10/22/80 on it and “Copy” checked off instead of “Master”. They couldn’t (or wouldn’t) secure the actual master tape for this?! I’d bet Astley’s Japanese remaster came from a master tape.